Competitive chess is played worldwide by thousands, perhaps even millions, of people. As a matter of practicality, chess clocks are used for tournament games. The rules promulgated by various chess organizations set out the amount of time to be allotted for a chess game.
A typical chess clock includes two clocks and two switches. Each switch starts one clock and stops the other clock simultaneously. Thus, as a player completes a move, he pushes his switch which stops his clock and starts his opponent's clock. In this manner, each player's time taken for the game is measured.
In most timed chess matches or tournaments, the time for each player is divided into periods, a primary period and one or more additional secondary periods. These time periods are set out in the official rules of chess promulgated by either national or international organizations. Typically, the primary period is 2 hours long and each player is expected to have completed at least 40 moves in this 2-hour period If one player does not complete his 40 moves within the 2-hour primary period, he will forfeit the game.
The primary period is typically followed by secondary periods of one hour duration wherein each player is expected to complete an additional 20 moves. As many secondary one-hour periods are employed as are necessary to complete the game. Any time remaining to a player by virtue of being left over from the primary period is credited as extra time in the secondary period. In addition, any time remaining after the first secondary period is carried over to the second secondary period and so on. Time only runs against the player while it is his turn to move and runs from the moment it is his turn to move until he makes his move. This particular scheme of timing chess matches is currently the standard for competitive chess events worldwide.
Many different time periods are used in competitive chess besides the 2-hour primary period. In the United States for example, rated chess games can employ anywhere from 30 to 150 minutes for the primary period.
Due to the lengths of the primary and secondary chess games can last for many hours. For example, when employing a 2-hour primary period, a chess game can take up to 4 hours to complete the first 40 moves. Many competitive chess games are adjourned after 4, 5 or 6 hours of play. Upon adjournment, one player writes down his next move and seals it in a sealed envelope. The game position is then recorded and the game is suspended until a convenient time to resume the game. In international chess, for example, most games are adjourned overnight and resumed the following day. During the adjournment period, the players invariably analyze the game position until the game is resumed. Further, the players analyze the position with other players, friends and kibitzers. Chessbooks that specialize in endgame positions, and increasingly, chess computers, are also used as further aids.
The result of adjournments is often a skewing of a particular player's chess-playing ability since the success or failure of a player upon resumption of an adjourned game often depends on the amount of time spent analyzing the game during the adjournment as well as the quantity and quality of help that player had in analyzing the game during the adjournment. In matches between top-class Soviet chess players, each player typically employs a team of several grandmasters whose job it is to spend all night during an adjournment analyzing the position in order to find the best series of moves for that player. Chess endgame books and chess computers are employed as further aids in plumbing the depths of the adjourned position. Thus, the play of the game upon resumption of the adjournment does not necessarily reflect the ability of a particular player, but rather it may be more a reflection of the ability of his team of analysts, books and computers. There are many people, including the present inventor, who wish to eliminate adjournments for exactly this reason. A chess game should be an accurate reflection of the ability of a particular player and not a reflection of the strength and ability of his team of analysts, books and computers.
Another problem with the present timing system for competitive chess is that the number of moves which must be made during the primary time period is arbitrarily selected. While at first glance this may not seem important, the arbitrary selection of the number of moves has a major impact on competitive chess games. For instance, selecting 40 moves to be completed in the primary period of 2 hours means that each player has 2 hours to complete his 40 moves and also that each player can allot his 2 hours among his 40 moves any way that player chooses to. The result of such a system is that perhaps too many games are decided between moves 30 and 40 because many players will take an inordinate amount of time for their first 30 moves and be left with but a few minutes to complete their remaining 10 moves. The result is often a mad time scramble to complete move 40 before the 2-hour period runs out. Numerous games are decided by blunders (sometimes gross blunders) during such time scrambles.
Again, the decision of a chess game on the basis of several moves made during a time scramble may not accurately reflect the chess-playing ability of the players. Rather, it often reflects the ability of each player to budget his time appropriately. There are many people, including the present inventor, who feel that one's ability to budget time should not be such a decisive factor in deciding who wins and loses competitive chess games.
Two electronic chess clocks for timing competitive chess games are known. Both of these clocks employ the sanctioned timing system described above.
The first of these two clocks is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,180 (Meshi et al) issued on Dec. 13, 1977. This clock includes a digital display for each player, a digital memory means for storing and counting down each player's time period, switch means for activating the countdown, and add time means for adding unused time from the primary time period to the secondary time period. This clock is unwieldly and since it employs the sanctioned timing method, suffers from all of the disadvantages discussed herein.
The second of the electronic chess clocks is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,067 (Richardson et al) issued on Sept. 18, 1984. This clock includes a pair of start switches, a pair of clock means, an LCD display means, reset and advance switches for setting the clock means, and counter means for counting the number of operations of the start switches. Again, this electronic clock employs the sanctioned timing method and suffers from all of the disadvantages discussed herein. A clock similar to that disclosed by the Richardson et al patent is available from Kaisha Electronics, P.O. Box 40069, Pasadena, CA 91104 under the trademark "Kaisha 1000."
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new set of chess rules, a new method of timing chess games and an apparatus capable of performing the new timing method which will eliminate adjournments from competitive chess and which will eliminate the need for selecting an arbitrary number of moves to be completed in a primary time period.